Scavengers

Publication Instance Details #2154

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	Yes	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	War Poverty/Deprivation/Lack of Sustenance HR Activism/Humanitarian Work
Irish Context	HR-related International Involvement (Ireland)
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem describes the stresses and strains of being in a warzone and seeing the effects of the conflict on people. The speaker of the poem mentions how on his birthday, they were giving out scraps of food, money, and bottled water, to the local children. The poet seems almost disgusted by the poverty around him, especially that of the old woman, who gladly eats their cast-off potatoes. They then had a near-accident on the road when their vehicle almost rolled off into the wadi (river plain). The other soldier mentioned in the poem appears to be having a stressful reaction to all of this, as expressed in the first verse of the poem. The speaker describes himself and his fellow soldiers as 'ghosts'.